Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Some trivia in advance of today's election of a new Commons Speaker.

The two contenders who may well face each other in the final ballot, Margaret Beckett and Sir George Young, also faced each other as leader of the house, and shadow leader, in the period 1998-2000.

Mrs Beckett always insists she is a past Labour Party leader, since she briefly took over from John Smith for a few weeks after his death in 1994, before the party elected Tony Blair.

And leader, she insists she was, not acting leader - though I doubt if it is something she stressed much over the past two weeks.

So when is the last time a former party leader became Speaker? Not since the early 19th Century, I suspect.

Mrs Beckett has been an MP for 31 years, in two spells from 1974-79 and 1983 to date.

Of these 31 years, she spent 15 in government, 13 on the opposition front bench, and three as an ordinary backbencher.

The latter came in four short spells - 1974-75, 1983-84, 2007-08, and the last two weeks!

I've spoken to both Aurelia Young, wife of Sir George Young, and Margaret Beckett's husband Leo in the last few hours, and neither seemed very confident.